More and more women who write about their families, aka “mom bloggers”, are working with brands and getting great sponsorships from big companies on their websites. However, they tend to be more of a one-off deal or the link between the blogger and the company is a little vague.
How do you take that level of engagement to more of a spokesperson arrangement?
Author Kathy Buckworth will speak to these women about how to turn their experiences into a more professional level at the Mom 2.0 Summit in Miami, Florida May 3-5, 2012 in her talk entitled “From Sponsored to Spokesperson”.
One of the issue that they have I think is how to manage their presence and brand in social media. I’ll talk about ‘Auntie Kathy’s dos and don’ts’ on how to represent yourself on Twitter and where you should step back, what you should promote, what you should talk about, and what it says when you talk about certain things,” Buckworth says.
“I’m never going to tell anyone exactly what they should tweet about but I think I can help people determine what it says about them when they tweet certain things and if that’s who they want to be, that’s great. But if they are presenting themselves in a very negative or underachieving mode when they could do better, they need to know what messages they are sending out.”
When a PR rep sends you an email with “dear mommy” in the salutation, many women bloggers are offended. The biggest complaint I hear is when people are not addressed correctly in a pitch.
Buckworth’s advice – keep the contact and throw away the content.
“They may have gotten the contact wrong but they have investigated you beforehand, you are someone they want to talk to and they probably have relationships with other brands. So it’s important to respect as a professional, talk to them about what you DO do,” Buckworth says.
“Recognize that these are professional people who don’t need to be insulted because they got your title wrong. They need to be appreciated for the work that they are doing as well.”
For a blogger who wants to take it to the next level with PR agencies or brands, Buckworth suggests getting in front of them – in person. Meeting them face to face gives you an opportunity to show them who you are, how well you speak and how you present yourself.
“Once you are in front of them, it will give them a face behind a brand, a personality because at the end of the day, if they want you to be an actual spokesperson, you have to look like they want their brand to look.”
Getting your face in front of them and making that personal connection is always worth it. But if you’re not being approached by brands or PR companies, make a connection another way – find someone local to you and maybe ask them about their connections.
“You’ll find that maybe some have connections they can no longer use and they may want to share with you,” Buckworth says.
If you are someone who gets approached all the time and you don’t want to talk to certain brands, or the brand no longer fits with your brand, pass on names of those whom you know would be interested.
“First, it builds the community, and secondly, they will be grateful to you. Send them onto someone you know will help.
If you’re not going to take that piece of work, why not spread it around?”
